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Parts of Brain

Brain Parts And How They Work Together

Your brain is an incredible organ. It serves as the main control center for the entire body. Brain parts each have their own function and they all work together to accomplish all of your daily tasks. Here's a quick look at brain parts and what they do.

The Cerebrum - Your Grey Matter

The outer layer of the brain is the cerebrum. Of all brain parts, this one is the best known. Because of how it looks, we call it "grey matter." It's also the largest of all the brain parts. It makes up 85% of your brain's weight. It's made up of nerve cells all massed together and split into a left and right hemisphere. The cerebrum deals with all of your "thinking." It handles cognition, voluntary muscle control, sensory information processing, personality, memory and everything else involved in thinking.

The cerebrum contains different areas with specialized functions. These are known as "lobes" and they include the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe. Although each handles its own tasks, all of these brain parts also share some tasks such as memory, language and sensory information processing.

The Cerebellum - The "Little" Brain

Cerebellum means "little brain." The cerebrum is one of the newer brain parts evolutionarily speaking and we don't see it nearly as developed in other animals. The cerebellum in humans is much more similar to that of animals. It's located at the base of the skull and it's primarily involved in coordination, balance and motor actions.

The Limbic System - Your Animal Brain

The limbic system is called the "animal brain" and also known as the emotional center. It's the most primitive of all brain parts. Although the cerebrum and cerebellum deal with some emotions, the limbic system deals with our most primitive - rage, fear and anxiety. This is where we get the "fight or flight" mechanism that we share with the animal kingdom. The limbic system is also involved in memory, spontaneity, creativity and learning. It also contains the thalamus, the brain's main message center.

The Brain Stem - Your Involuntary Functions

The brain stem is located at the lower part of the brain and it's connected to the spinal cord. It handles all of your involuntary functions such as breathing, temperature, heart rate, swallowing, digestion, blood pressure, sweat and so on. While the other brain parts handle functions that are somewhat under our control at least, the brain stem covers all the things you can't control.

This article is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to brain parts. Each lobe of the cerebrum has its own task, as well as all the little parts of the limbic system, cerebellum and brain stem. All of these brain parts work together to control everything your mind and body do!

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